


everything became more like you

by destinyeol



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Humor, Kid Fic, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-05 05:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16361522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destinyeol/pseuds/destinyeol
Summary: Sehun is a single father, trying to balance raising his daughter and work. His daughter, in the meanwhile, has grown attached to her kindergarten teacher, Kim Minseok.





	everything became more like you

**Author's Note:**

> to the lovely person who prompted this: hello! i hope you liked this fic as much as i enjoyed writing it. i apologize as i haven't written anything in over a year, so it might look weird, but i had a lot of fun and grew super fond of it. i hope anyone reading this enjoys too! and thank you to my best friend for showing me about this fest. and thank you to the mods for being super lovely about it! i hope it's a fun read ahead <3

 

Like every day, the part Sehun looked forward to the most was this one: the one moment where Seohyun would run into his arms after a long day, ready to babble to Sehun about all of the adventures on her day as they drive back home.

Or so he thought.

Usually, at this hour, Seohyun is already sitting on the floor outside: her little backpack is usually clutched between her arms and the teachers are always sitting with the rest of the children outside, waiting for the parents to come pick them up. And yet, he’s sure he either got here too early or too late.

One look at his watch tells him that he is just a bit late, which means he’s at his usual Slightly-Late-Hour. _Where_ is his daughter, then?

He takes long strides towards the place, suddenly a bit panicky at the lack of _Seohyun_ outside, and enters the kindergarden a bit too disheveled, breathing a bit too heavily.

The place is mostly empty, just one or two children now, but the most important one is in the middle: Seohyun is sat at the center of the room, giggling as she has her hair brushed by — wait.

“You’re not Mrs. Kim,” Sehun accidentally blurts out at the man currently brushing his daughter’s hair. The man looks up at the same time as Seohyun does, and wasting no time, Seohyun runs from the stranger’s arms into his own. Sehun smiles as he picks her up. “Hi, princess!”

“Dad!” The squeal of pure delight is what makes Sehun finally calm down as his daughter envelops him in a big hug. “Look! Look! Do you like my pigtails?”

There _are_ pigtails on her head, and Sehun knows damn well she had come with her hair down when he dropped her off. They look cute as _hell._  Sehun holds her with one arm and twirls one of her pigtails.

“They’re so pretty!” his daughter squeals in delight at the approval. “Did you do them by yourself?”

“Actually, I helped,” the man who was brushing her hair stands up from the chair, smiling. Sehun is a bit taken back — his hair too is pulled up on pigtails. Combined with the honest, sincere smile on his face, it looks a bit cute. “I’m not Mrs. Kim, by the way — I’m _Mr._ Kim. My name is Minseok!”

He stretches out his hand to shake it and Sehun takes it. It’s a bit funny how the hand fit with his — a bit too small yet somehow firm and strong in the handshake. “I’m Sehun, Seohyun’s dad.”

Minseok drops his hand, immediately picking up Seohyun’s tiny one. “Sehun,” _oh_ , that sounds nice, “Seohyun is the funniest kid ever!”

His daughter giggles, a bit shy, and Sehun grins smugly. “Everything she knows she learned it from me.”

“Well, you must be quite the comedian then,” Minseok grins at him, and Sehun is not quite sure whether he meant it as a joke or not. He decides to just awkwardly nod in response. “Are you guys coming back tomorrow? I’d hate to not try more hairstyles by our Hyunnie!”

 _Our_ Hyunnie? Sehun is aware that it’s normal to refer to kids like that, especially when they’re in the kindergarten, but still — _his_ daughter. “Yeah, yeah, mondays to fridays. Are you… a permanent replacement for Mrs. Kim?”

Mrs. Kim was a really nice, gentle lady in her mid-fifties that Sehun trusted with his whole life. He was pretty sure Mrs. Kim had been an angel in her past life, with the way she would always wait a bit longer if Sehun got out of work a bit too late and keep Seohyun worry-free and happy, and the way she would give Sehun any tips to bond better with his kid and be a better dad. Mr. Kim Minseok, however…

Okay, Sehun doesn’t have a bad opinion of the guy yet. He seems really nice, Seohyun seems to like him — and Seohyun doesn’t like people that fast, either — and… the pigtails don’t look bad on him. He’s been having a hard time keeping a straight face when the man looks simply cute like that.

“I am!” he clasps his hands together and continues talking, a bit excited now: “She got transferred to another kindergarten. I applied for the job and got it immediately, so yeah! I’ll be here around permanently.”

“That’s great,” Sehun says, not knowing what to say to that. It sounded a bit awkward and sarcastic, so he carries on with what he wanted to say initially. “I, um, I work in an office forty minutes away from here. It usually gets really hard to get here on time, traffic and all that, and—”

“—yes—”

“—I don’t want you to think I purposefully leave my daughter here by herself, I just, _you know_ … Traffic… Usually my office has a strict schedule but sometimes I have a bit of a delay in work and—”

His cheeks get squished by Seohyun’s tiny hands. “Dad, you talk too much!”

He lets out a breathless laugh at that, shaking his head in embarrassment. He really should’ve stopped himself from rambling. Luckily, Mr. Kim Minseok looks amused by the interaction. He still has the same patient grin when he replies to Sehun.

“It’s okay. I can absolutely stay behind until you can come pick your daughter up. I wouldn’t close the place!”

A big weight is lifted off Sehun’s shoulders. “Thank you.” A beat of silence passes. Sehun doesn’t know why he’s not leaving yet. “Uh, it was… really good meeting you.”

“You guys too! See you tomorrow, Hyunnie!”

“Bye, Mr. Kim! See you!”

Sehun could feel Seohyun still waving, even when he opens the door to their car — she still sticks her face to the window and continues waving.

“So, how was your day, princess?”

Immediately, Sehun’s favorite part of the day begins. Seohyun latches onto explaining how Mr. Kim is absolutely wonderful: he likes to play games, he likes to sing, and he loves to lie down with them to draw. He also seems to be really fond of Seohyun’s ideas, as she mentions how Mr. Kim approved and encouraged her on her dream of being the first fashion designer to have dresses with her dog’s face on them. It’s all good, until she says:

“And he let me do pigtails on his hair! I never get to do ones to you!” she puffs, crossing her arms, “Your hair is too short!”

Well.

“Is that so,” is all he replies before Seohyun drops the topic and continues talking about her day.

Nothing much happens after that. They get home, Sehun immediately helping her shower so they could prepare dinner and watch Disney Junior together until Seohyun’s bedtime. As usual, she falls asleep watching Puppy Dog Pals and Sehun carries her to bed.

She always looks so peaceful when she sleeps. Sehun puts a blanket over her and kisses her head briefly, before turning around and deciding to shower before joining his daughter on bed.

He enters the bathroom and stops, looking at himself in the mirror.

“It’s not that short,” he says, slightly pouting. He tries to make a pigtail out of his hair and fails miserably.

 _Well_. Time to grow it out.

 

 

 

—

 

Slightly-Late-Hour arrived.

Sehun opens the door to the kindergarten to find Seohyun lying on her back, lights all turned down except from the funky starry show going on in the roof. He cracks a smile at that — Mr. Kim was on the floor next to her, pointing out constellations at her.

Sehun cleared his throat, a bit regretfully, “Hi.”

As usual, Seohyun jolts up at his voice, her face momentarily being covered by the projector’s light and making her look funny. Sehun barely has time to laugh before Seohyun crashes into him, almost taking him down with a hug.

As he spins his daughter around in the hug, causing her to giggle, he notices Mr. Kim getting up and turning off the projector, then turning the lights back on.

“Dad! Dad!” Seohyun babbles quickly, “Stars! They’re so cool! They’re so pretty and they form shapes! Sometimes they form lines! Did you know they have names? My favorite is Dipper! Like Dipper in Gravity Falls—”

“Slow down,” Sehun pinches one of her cheeks softly. She really got the ramblings from him, huh? “When did you start learning about the stars?”

“Today, actually!” Mr. Kim chirps up, excitement matching Seohyun’s own. He looks at Sehun with a bright smile on his face before continuing, “I really believe teaching the kids about stars is important, you know. We need to know what’s beyond us.”

Sehun would love to know why, exactly, Mr. Kim feels the need to always chat him up when he comes, but he thinks he doesn’t mind _that_ much. His tone of voice is always nice and gentle, and Sehun likes to hear him talk. Mrs. Kim would always send him off, so he finds this new small talk to be both weird and refreshing.

He realizes he should probably say something.

“Yeah,” he says, awkwardly and stupidly. He tries to say a bit more. “I’ve never learned about it, so, anything she tells me is going to surprise me beyond words.”

Mr. Kim smirks. “I could always do particular lessons for you two.”

 _What_.

Sehun doesn’t have time to process whether it was intended to be flirting or not — when the _fuck_ was the last time he flirted with someone? — because Seohyun immediately lunges herself forward to Mr. Kim, arms wide open. Sehun has to hold her from her waist so she doesn’t fall off him.

Mr. Kim steps a little closer to reciprocate the hug she was trying to give.

“Please, dad!” Seohyun begs, turning around while squishing Mr. Kim’s cheeks with her hands. “I want to be more with Mr. Kim! Let’s have stars lessons! Please, please, _pleeeeease_ —”

Sehun laughs, pushing his daughter off her teacher and shaking his head slightly. “I’m sure Mr. Kim was just joking,” he says.

The look Mr. Kim gives him tells him he _wasn’t_ joking, at all.

He clears his throat again.

“I also don’t have the time, baby,” he explains, talking to Seohyun but somehow he feels like he should have addressed Mr. Kim too.

“That’s okay,” Mr. Kim says, kind as ever. “That means I will teach Seohyun twice as hard so she can teach Sehun, too!”

Oh, yeah, he knew his name too. Somehow that still threw off Sehun, even though it’s around the fifth time he’s name-dropped on the conversations.

“Good idea,” Sehun replies. He wishes this didn’t always come to slightly-awkward-interactions thanks to him. “I — I guess I will be seeing you on Monday.”

Mr. Kim looks thrown off for a second. “Is it Friday already? Oh, I thought I’d get to see you two tomorrow…”

Seohyun pouts right on cue. “I wanna see you tomorrow, Mr. Kim! I don’t wanna leave yet!”

 _Well._  Seohyun never gets attached to strangers that quickly, especially not teachers — took her a whole lot of time to actually like Mrs. Kim. Sehun _pouts_ at her, throwing all appearances out of the window.

“Don’t you want to come home with dad?” He pouts at her while he asks, and the effect is immediate: Seohyun is back over him a second later, always loving her dad more than other people. Sehun feels proud at that.

“Sorry, Mr. Kim,” she says, “See you!”

“See you, Sehun, Hyunnie!”

Sehun waves goodbye at Mr. Kim, whose smile becomes a bit sweeter if it could be possible.

On the ride back, Seohyun is animatedly telling him about her day, as usual. Mr. Kim apparently wants to try baking next week, which — _Jesus_. This teacher really knew how to have fun with kids. Mrs. Kim let them draw with crayons and read them stories, and Sehun already considered that to be high quality teaching for kindergartens.

“He says you’re funny!” Seohyun exclaims, suddenly remembering. “I said that you were really nice and funny and that he would like you and he said he thinks you’re funny?”

Sehun almost slams his foot on the brakes. Almost. Why would Seohyun and her teacher talk about him? Like, for what? He’s just her dad! He has the biggest urge to hide his face on his hands, but he really needs to drive, so he holds back and instead looks at Seohyun through the mirror.

“Why does he think I’m funny?”

“Because you do a cute thing when you’re nervous,” she says, like it’s not big deal. “He said it’s a lot like me when I’m really happy!”

Oh my _God_. How can Sehun drop this topic now? It’s not like he’s going to ask further questions to his _child_. What could distract her?

“Anyways,” Sehun quickly carries on, “do you want to go to McDonald’s?”

Seohyun perks up immediately. “Are we seeing Uncle Chanyeol?”

“...I mean, why not?”

“Yay!” she exclaims. And then, the chanting begins: “McDonald’s! McDonald’s! McDonald’s!”

It’s gonna be a long drive to McDonald’s.

 

Of course, Uncle Chanyeol was free for a McDonald’s hangout, because when is he not?

“A teacher,” Chanyeol says after he swallows a bite of his burger. “Are you that desperate? Mrs. Kim, really?”

“No, no, not Mrs. Kim!” Sehun stresses, quickly moving his head to the side to check on Seohyun. She’s going up on the slide, alright. “She got transferred to a new kindergarten.”

“Oh really?” He looks even disappointed. It’s a bit funny. “She offered me cookies whenever I picked up Seohyun.”

“Maybe she’s the real desperate one,” Sehun remarks quickly, and promptly ignores Chanyeol’s offended noises. “So Seohyun has a new teacher named Kim Minseok. He’s like our age and he’s really cute.”

“So you have the hots for him, technically,” he reaches out for a fry and Sehun slaps it out of his hands. “Ow! What’s that for?”

“You’re being too blunt,” Sehun replies, way too embarrassed and tired to deal with that. “I don’t. Yet. I don’t know. I think he’s flirting with me. I have no idea. Isn’t that unprofessional?”

“It’s a kindergarten, Sehun. It’s not like a real school where sleeping with teachers is really awful.”

“Okay, true,” Sehun hums. “I still don’t know if he’s just being nice to me or if he’s like that to every parent that comes to pick up their child. Maybe he’s pitying me because I get off work late and always leave him with Seohyun? So he thinks like, ‘Wow, this poor dad needs a little cheer up,’ so he just tells me nice things. Chanyeol, he offered to teach me astrology lessons. I don’t know why.”

Chanyeol laughs, shaking his head. “Okay, that kind of sounds like flirting. How long has this been going on?”

“Since Monday, technically? He’s just. Always extra nice to me. You know, the kind of niceness you don’t usually expect. Maybe it’s just his teacher aura or something.”

“It’s good though,” Chanyeol gets weirdly honest for a second. “You should date him. Or get dicked down by him one time — whatever you choose, it won’t be a bad idea.”

The way Sehun immediately turns red makes Chanyeol laugh, so he hides his face against the table and sighs loudly. He still turns his head to the side, only to see Seohyun staring at him a bit worriedly. He waves his hand at her, trying to go for a dismissive gesture and mouths _I’m fine!_ at her. In response, she gives him a blinding smile and goes right back at running through the playground.

After a minute passes, he lifts his head up. “Could you not say those words? No one’s getting — no one’s —”

“Dicked—”

 _"No,"_ Sehun shuts him up quickly, “No one’s doing anything. If anything, it’s just nice to encounter friendly interactions after my work. I’m pretty happy being with Seohyun and my job, thank you.”

“No one’s saying you aren’t,” Chanyeol smiles at him reassuringly, and Sehun should know a bit better than to think his friend would criticize those aspects of his life. “But just saying, if you ever want to hit the guy up, you can always leave Seohyun with me!”

“And what, you’ll bring her to McDonald’s exclusively? No thanks. I’d rather leave her with Jongin.”

“First of all, _rude_. Second of all, who’s the one who called me here? That’s right.” Chanyeol takes a sip of his drink, being his turn now to look over to how Seohyun’s doing. Sehun sees her laughing with some other kids, so everything’s doing okay. “But for real. Anytime you need me to babysit, I can babysit.”

Sehun smiles, small and genuine. “Thanks, Chanyeol.”

“Anytime. Also, can I crash at your place? I’m too tired to go back to my own.”

“Why not,” he shrugs. “I bet Seohyun’s going to be delighted.”

 

Turns out, Seohyun’s passed out in the backseat, so she never really gets to have a reaction about Chanyeol staying over for the night. Chanyeol offers to carry her to bed while Sehun showers, so he heads straight for the showers and lets the warm water relax him.

A _lot_ has happened this week. Especially the whole _flirting_ thing — that was beyond unexpected. Sehun likes to think he’s always been ready to date, if the case ever came. It’s not like he has a tragic backstory related to dating and now he’s terrified, _but_ : his daughter and his work really do come first.

Waking up with Seohyun, having breakfast, them watching caricatures and doing little studies together before driving her to the kindergarten, _work work work work,_ Seohyun, dinner with Seohyun, and weekends reserved for her — that’s how Sehun has been living the last four years of his life.

And that’s the way he intends to, until Seohyun is old enough to go to _actual_ school and he has to figure out how to balance time.

Dating hasn’t even been a thing in his mind for the past four years. The suddenly mention of it has got Sehun a bit confused, but he’s so sure of one thing — that no matter what, his daughter really comes first.

With these thoughts in mind, he comes out of the shower, ready to watch a random movie with Chanyeol and enjoy the fact that he really, really gets to have free weekends to share with his daughter and friends. Thank God he had fought tooth and nail for that.

 

 

\--

On weekends, he likes to get up and make breakfast for Seohyun (and Chanyeol, he guesses) because the absolute joy her eyes get when she sees Sehun has made her some of her favorite foods just for her is something unpriceable, so of course waking up a little early was nothing compared to her happiness.

Except. _Except_ , this morning isn’t as peaceful, as he gets up a little bit later than usual, and finds out that all of Seohyun’s favorite cereals are gone. Well, fuck. He quickly grabs his keys, not bothering to comb his hair that well, and nudges Chanyeol awake on the guest room.

“Hey, I need to go to the store,” he pokes Chanyeol’s sides until he finally opens his eyes. “Please go to the room in case Seohyun wakes up.”

Chanyeol groggily wakes up, rubbing his eyes and having the hardest time staying awake. “What time is it?”

“It's like... 8 AM? Maybe?" Sehun shrugs, not really having paid attention to the hour after he woke up. "We ran out of special cereal. You know how she gets whenever she doesn't eat it on weekends."

Chanyeol's nose scrunches up and he can't tell whether it's because he's remembering how Seohyun gets when she doesn't eat her cereal or because he's waking up. Either way, he's dragging himself upstairs, all the way to Sehun's room, and only when he hears the sound of the door shutting softly he readies himself to go.

It's exactly 8:15AM when Sehun gets out of his car and enters the market, still in the same pajamas that when he woke up: the nice pink pants that Jongin had gotten him and the very comfortable yet faded t-shirt he has been wearing to sleep for years.

Thank God that he's a regular customer to the supermarket. He nods amicably to the guard, who grins at him almost like he expected to see Sehun as messy as he is right now. It doesn't matter though because he's a man on a mission, so he heads for the cereal aisle immediately.

He goes over a mental list while he gets there, analyzing everything he could need at home: do they need toilet rolls? Do they still have shampoo? Is there enough food to cook something today? How—

Ouch.

Sehun runs into something — _someone_ — and that someone makes a loud noise after being hit on. Sehun immediately gets up, an apology ready to spill out of his lips for not watching where he was going, when he notices who he ran into.

_Oh my fucking God._

"Oh, Sehun!" Mr. Kim grins widely. Of course out of everybody in the world, Mr. Kim Minseok happened to be here, in the supermarket. "That's one way to say good morning."

"I'm so sorry," Sehun apologizes finally, lending him his hand so he could get up from the floor. Mr. Kim takes his hand and gets up, turning it instead into a handshake that lasts a bit too long. "Good morning, though. I didn't — I didn't expect to see you here."

"Ah, me neither! I usually do all my shopping the day before at night, but I forgot some ingredients to bake with the kids next week," Mr. Kim leans in then, stage-whispering: "Don't tell them, but I rehearse my foods before baking them with the kids."

Sehun laughs, delighted to be let in with such a deep, dark secret. He mimics zipping his mouth closed. "I won't tell a single soul."

Mr. Kim's smile grows a bit bigger. "What about you? What brings you here in your pajamas?"

Oh my _God_. He's still on his pajamas in front of Mr. Kim. Sehun gets embarrassed so quickly, it's kind of funny. Except that _it isn't._

"Mr. Kim, I'm so sorry you have to see me like this," Sehun covers his face with his hands. Maybe if he presses hard enough he'll disappear from earth.

"You can call me Minseok, y'know?" Mr. Kim — No, Minseok — says, smiling amusedly. "It's okay, Sehun, we all have our pajamas day."

Once he's sure he's not being judged, he lowers his hands and sighs. "Seohyun ran out of her favorite cereal. I'm here to pick it up and take home whatever I might be missing, even though I don't know what."

"I can help!" Minseok immediately offers with the usual kindness adorning his voice. Is that a teacher thing? To always be so kind, including to parents? "We can take a walk around the supermarket and I'll keep naming you random things if you need them."

"That... doesn't sound half bad," Sehun smiles at him. "Sure. Thank you, Minseok."

The name tastes a bit weird yet comfortable in his tongue. Way better than Mr. Kim, that's for sure. Minseok immediately sets his shopping cart next to him, going over slowly the things and groceries in each aisle. He tells Sehun the randomest things — like what food would be better to bring to Seohyun, what type of cheese is the cheapest to buy, and... surprisingly, a whole lot about cleaning supplies.

"See," Minseok explains, holding up a cloth, "This is perfect for dusting off your shelves. You know how sometimes, some cloths leave behind some type of strange fluff-like material? You don't need to worry about that with this one."

"Are you being sponsored right now?" Sehun cracks up at the situation, but then Minseok laughs and blushes, and oh no. Oh no. He's really cute. "You know, just saying you're starting to sound like a walking product placement."

"I wish I got sponsored," Minseok huffs in fake annoyance. He pats Sehun's arm as if to emphasize a point, "You have no idea how many people I've told about what cleaning supplies to buy. I really need some good sponsoring. You wanna know how much kindergartens pay? Not enough."

Sehun stares at him, amusedly. He's different when he's by himself - a good type of different. Different in the way that Sehun would hang out with him for fun, maybe someone he’d take out drinking. He makes Sehun feel comfortable enough to be standing on a supermarket on his pajamas: that enough should be a good enough sign for him.

“Well,” he says after giving his cart one look, saddened by the fact he, in fact, has everything he needs. “I think it’s time for me to go.”

“Oh, wait, let me walk you to pay! I need to pay, too,” Minseok grins at him, basically bouncing beside him with his own cart. “Hey, Sehun?”

“Yeah?”

“Wanna go for coffee someday?”

“Uh — what?” Sehun immediately stops in his tracks, almost hitting his stomach with the back of the cart. “What?”

“I mean, not right now, of course,” he looks _so calm_. Sehun is already on his tenth breakdown. “But you seem really nice. I’d like to get to know you better.”

He turns around to grab a pack of coffee from the shelf behind them and hands it to Sehun. “Consider this me buying you coffee for now.”

Sehun holds the coffee in his hands, well-aware that he has, in fact, not given an answer.

He's a bit too dumbfounded to realize he should reply to the man before him, who's smiling like he didn't just drop the biggest bomb on him.

"You don't have to say yes," Minseok says after the few seconds Sehun doesn't reply. "This isn't inherently romantic, if you have a wife—"

"No! No, no, no," Sehun says so fucking quickly it actually hurts him. "No, God, no wives. I'm single. And I'm gay. Oh my God." He takes a deep breath. "It just took me by surprise."

Minseok laughs at that, bright and cheery. "Good to know those things. My point still stands about you being able to say no."

Sehun stares at him — like, really stares at him. A slight smile appears on his face when he takes up on his whole figure: how he was smaller than Sehun, bright gummy smile on place, eyes big and beautiful and very curly black hair. Sehun wouldn't mind taking a cup of coffee in a near future.

"I'll think about it," he says, in a tone that very much says "yes, sure, whenever I find time to do it I will."

Luckily, Minseok catches on immediately. "I'm glad to hear that. Should we exchange numbers? You know, in case Seohyun ever needs anything when she's at the kindergarten."

"Of course," Sehun replies, rolling his eyes playfully, "in case Seohyun needs anything."

"Glad you agree," Minseok saves himself on his phone and grins at him. "Also, just so you know — I also happen to have an extensive knowledge on coffee. So, you know. It'd be a great coffee hangout."

Sehun really appreciates him not saying date. Turns out, it's a bit too scary for him to think of it. "I bet it will."

Now, he wishes he wasn't the literal most awkward person to ever exist, as he has no idea how to end this conversation. Minseok must feel his actual struggle to say something, because then he's patting Sehun's shoulder and opting to squeezing it reassuringly. "Well! I hope Seohyun enjoys her cereal. It was fun to shop with you!"

"We should do it again sometime," he says, like an idiot, blurting it out before it's too late. "If — if you ever want to, of course, I—"

"It's fine," Minseok interjects before he gets to rambling. "I'd love to. See you on Monday, Sehunnie! Say hi to Hyunnie for me!"

And then he's off, walking out of the supermarket with his bags and getting lost in the crowd. Sehun goes back to his car, suddenly all the flusteredness crashing down upon him and making him rest his head against the wheel.

He's an idiot. A very big, tall, stupid idiot. A very big, tall, awkward, stupid idiot. Chanyeol would so laugh at him when he got home.

 

Truth to his word, Chanyeol did, in fact, laugh at him.

"Is that why you took so long?" Chanyeol wheezes, "You were flirting with Seohyun's teacher?"

At the mention of her teacher, her head snaps up, suddenly no longer asleep on her seat. "Mr. Kim? You saw Mr. Kim, daddy?"

Sehun wants to bury his face in a pillow and scream for ten hours. Of course neither Chanyeol or Seohyun will ever drop the topic now. Instead, he musters up all his patience as he pours the cereal on Seohyun's bowl. "Yes, I saw Minseok—"

"Minseok?" he can practically hear Chanyeol's shit-eating grin. "You guys on first name basis now?"

"I saw Mr. Kim at the supermarket," Sehun explains, calmly pouring the milk on her bowl and handing it to her. He ruffled her hair a little, "And we talked about things."

"Things?"

Sehun sighs a little. "He asked me if I ever wanted to drink coffee with him."

Chanyeol looks absolutely delighted, and suddenly Sehun wishes he was pouring more cereal just so he wouldn't have to deal with Chanyeol being like this. Instead, he sits down with the cup of coffee — yes, the coffee Minseok had handed to him. Because he's lame and stupid, sue him.

"And what did you say?"

"I said I would think about it," Sehun answers, and Chanyeol's hopes and dreams fall apart after he says it. "What?"

"You're so full of sh—"

_"Chanyeol."_

"You're such a liar," Chanyeol shakes his head. He turns to Seohyun, who's too busy chewing and loving her cereal to actually care about the conversation, even if it was about her favorite teacher. "Hey, sweetie, don't you agree that your daddy is a liar?"

Seohyun, the angel that she is, immediately shakes her head. "No! Daddy would never lie." She crosses her arms, stubborn about it. "Daddy always tells the truth!"

"That's right," Sehun grins widely, leaning over to kiss his daughter's head. "Besides..."

"Yes?"

Once Seohyun returns to her plate and focuses only on that, he continues talking: "We did exchange numbers."

"Oh my God," Chanyeol laughs. "You sound like a cute teenager with their first crush. It's cute."

"It's not cute and I do not sound like that," Sehun says, firmly. "But anyways..."

"Yes?"

"You think it'd be a good idea? You know, if I ever do want to go out for coffee?"

Chanyeol extends his arm across the table just to rub his shoulder comfortingly. Sehun appreciates the effort. "It's more than okay, Sehun. Let me know when you make up your mind, okay?"

A bit more relieved at the reassurement of a friend that it's okay, he nods, and hopes he makes his mind up soon.

 

 

 

**ii. a month later**

The sound of a phone ringing is what wakes up Sehun. Seohyun is still sleeping soundly against his chest, and Sehun is so thankful she’s the heaviest sleeper he knows. He rolls her off slightly, still being careful to not wake her, and picks up the phone. He waits until he’s out of the room to actually put it on his ear, though.

_"—and… Sehun, are you listening?"_

“Am now,” he yawns loudly. Junmyeon surely knew that weekends were reserved for Seohyun, so this call _so_ early has Sehun beyond confused. “What happened, Junmyeon?”

 _“Oh, good morning again,”_ Junmyeon laughs shortly, _"Sorry for calling when you were asleep. It’s important, though…”_

“Go on.”

_“Remember the business trip you had to do?”_

“I do,” Sehun sighs a little. “I need to go to Osaka next month, I remember.”

 _“Thaaat’s the thing,"_  Junmyeon sounds almost sorry when he speaks.  _"Things have been rescheduled and they’re filming the video from tomorrow til Monday.”_

“What?” Sehun asks, wide-awake now. “What do you mean?”

He _hopes_ he’s not implying what he thinks he’s implying.

 _“You need to travel to Osaka today,"_  Junmyeon definitely sounds sorry now. _“I’m sorry, Sehunnie, I tried to make them change their mind, but it seems like there was an error with schedules and the deadline is for Tuesday instead of next month. I’m really sorry.”_

“Not your fault,” Sehun rubs his temple, sighing. This fucks up so much of his schedule, what the fuck. “Thank you for trying, though.”

_“I’m gonna be with you around 4PM or 3, if that’s okay with you?”_

Sehun checks his watch. It’s _seven_ in the morning right now, which means he has plenty of time to pack up enough stuff for a few days.

“That’s okay, sure,” he sighs again, “Thank you for telling me, Junmyeon.”

_“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more, Sehunnie.”_

“It’s fine, really. See you later.”

He hangs up and tries his best to not slam his phone on the ground. This is a mess. Knowing he had a schedule to follow on the next month, he had already talked to Chanyeol _and_ Jongin to babysit Seohyun because no way he was taking her to Osaka. Editing might not be taken as a serious job to most people, but it _is_ , and more than often the intensity of it — like the one he was about to go on — made him grumpy and headache-y, and Seohyun did not deserve that.

Now, however. Chanyeol is _busy_ visiting his parents and Jongin is on the other side of the country, visiting his family and his own nephews, and Sehun knows he can’t call either of them. Fuck. _Fuck fuck fuck fuck_.

He can’t call his parents — why did Sehun move to Seoul, again? What did he ever win living away from his parents? Lost some good instant babysitters, that’s what he did.

Then it hits him.

He literally has the perfect person to ring.

He hopes that in the month he’s spent texting Minseok, talking to him every time he picks up Seohyun, and occasionally running into him in the supermarket for some quality shopping time, allows him to ask for _one_ favor. Sehun swears he’ll never ask Minseok for anything, ever.

_Please pick up…_

_“Sehunnie?”_ Minseok sounds up and awake and functional, in the same weird way Junmyeon does. He will never understand responsible people and their ways of being awake at 7AM, willingly. _“What’s wrong? You never are up this early.”_

If it were any other moment, Sehun might’ve gotten flustered by the fact Minseok remembers his usual waking up hour, and also by the fact Minseok knows he can’t wake up early for shit.

“Hey,” he tries to go for casual but the worry seeps through his voice anyways. “I’m so sorry for calling without warning, but I really, really need a favor. It’s about Seohyun.”

 _“Is she okay?”_ Minseok asks immediately, and okay, his genuine concern for his daughter actually touches Sehun’s heart. _“Did something happen?”_

“Don’t worry, she’s fine,” he reassures him immediately. “She’s asleep right now. I just — I have this problem. I need to leave to Osaka, and I thought I had to go next month, but it got rescheduled and I need to go today. I thought about calling my friend Jongin, but he’s really busy—”

_“Sehun—”_

“—and Chanyeol is visiting his parents too, and like, I had already asked them to watch over Seohyun next month so they’re not available right now, and I’m calling you because I literally have no one else to ask—”

 _“Sehun,”_ Minseok insists, firmly. Sehun shuts up for once. _“It’s more than okay. I can absolutely watch over Seohyun. How long will you be gone?”_

“I might come back Wednesday morning?” Sehun’s heart already hurts just _imagining_ being away from his daughter that long. At least he had a month worth of preparation if it didn’t get rescheduled — right now, his mind is still operating on the schedule of having cereal for breakfast and watching re-runs of Paw Patrol with Seohyun. “It’s quite a long time and I understand if you can’t—”

_“I definitely can. Don’t worry about it. Want me to go there?”_

Sehun releases a breath he was definitely holding. “Thank you so much. I owe you my life. Please come here, I’ll text you the location.”

_“Sure thing! See you soon!”_

He hangs up and holds his head on his hands. God, that was so stressful and it was only seven in the morning.

 

Twenty minutes later, Minseok shows up at his doorstep, carrying a backpack with him that for some reason makes him look ten times tinier. Sehun wishes he was as put-together as Minseok seemed: the beige shirt and the black jeans, plus a hair that was actually _combed_ , made him look all types of attractive and, well, put-together.

Sehun sighs relieved when he sees him, opening the door and letting him come in. “Thank you so much, I’m so sorry this was so sudden…”

“It’s okay!” he puts the backpack on Sehun’s sofa and clasps his hands together, his positive energy radiating and spreading through Sehun. “I understand sometimes work calls and you can’t do much about it. It’s the least I could do for my favorite dad and student.”

“Favorite dad?” Sehun asks before he can stop himself.

In response, Minseok winks at him, and Sehun has no fucking idea what that means. “That reminds me, what do you work as, Sehunnie? So many shopping dates and I always forget to ask that.”

 _Shopping dates_? Could Minseok like, not make Sehun feel like he was a teenager with a crush for one second? He scratches his neck nervously, still recovering from the fact that Minseok is a very straight-forward person with what he says. A confident gay, as Chanyeol one explained to him.

“I’m an editor under SM Entertainment, heard of them?” Minseok’s eyes go wide with shock, as it usually does whenever Sehun mentions the company he works for. “Some group had a bad schedule situation—they’re filming the MV and want me to edit it in time for their comeback. Quite a messy thing, but, that’s just how it is sometimes.”

Minseok reaches out to pat his shoulder comfortingly, and Sehun wonders how his touch can carry that much comfort. He always does that, and Sehun never feels any less comforted whenever he does it.

“I’m sorry things got complicated,” and he says it so genuinely, Sehun can’t even think of it as pity or anything related. “Is Seohyun awake yet?”

“No, I let her sleep in during weekends,” Sehun’s smile is a bit of an embarrassed one. Is it okay to tell your daughter’s teacher that she sleeps in on weekends? Is that irresponsible parenting? “She usually wakes up at nine or so. She’s gonna have the best day when she realizes her favorite teacher is here.”

Minseok laughs. “I’m so glad I’m her favorite teacher. But also, I’m the only teacher she has, right? Is she cheating on me with other teachers? Are _you_?”

His hands come up, shaking them at the same time he shakes his head, because God forbid another teacher as good as Kim Minseok ever exists. Sehun laughs anyway, because he looks genuinely concerned that there might exist other teachers in their lives.

“Don’t worry, you’re our one and only,” Sehun says between laughs. “Have you had breakfast?”

“Have _you_?” Minseok takes one look at him. “You look like you’ve been stressing out for the past twenty minutes, if your hair is anything to judge it for.”

Goddamn. While letting his hair grow out (just for the sake of pigtails), he had forgotten how absolutely hard it is to take care of it. It really must’ve been a mess after running his hands through it fifty times. He shakes his head, an involuntary pout settling on his lips.

“I’ve been a bit too busy stressing and booking tickets right now,” Sehun sighs, feeling like a big weight is being lifted by talking about it. “I kind of forgot to make breakfast.”

Minseok strolls into his kitchen after that, like he owns the place or something, already having Sehun follow him like a lost puppy. “I’m making you breakfast,” he announces.

“But — but,” Sehun helplessly says, like an idiot, because deep down he knows Minseok has this won over already. “But you’re my guest.”

“No, right now I’m a babysitter,” Minseok smirks devilishly at him. “All I’m seeing is one big baby who can’t cook.”

“I am **_not_ ** a big baby, and I _can_ cook!” Sehun says, definitely not whining.

“Talk about that when your hair is combed and you look decent,” he gives Sehun one quick glance and gets to his fridge. “Till then, you have no room to make arguments.”

“But—”

“Shush. Shush, shush, can’t hear!”

 _"Fine_ ,” Sehun turns around to go get dressed, but absolutely out of free will and not because Minseok said he should.

He ignores Minseok’s loud annoying laugh behind him. Jerk.

 

When Sehun comes back (now with a dress shirt, hair styled back and actual pants for work) he has Seohyun clinging onto him, her little head buried in his neck as she attempts to wake up. It’s the cutest thing in the world whenever she tried to wake up to be with Sehun and ended having short five minutes nap on his neck, like right now.

Minseok smiles at the image, already depositing the plates on the table — Sehun notices quickly that he set up a plate for Seohyun with her favorite cereal. If he wasn’t so resented for the baby comment, his heart would’ve softened at the thought of him remembering what Seohyun loved.

“Is she awake yet?” Minseok stage-whispers, and Seohyun stirs a little on his neck, probably trying to wake up from the nap. “She’s so cute right now, oh my God.”

Sehun’s own smile turns unbelievably fond when her hand comes up to his shoulder, moving a little. He kisses her forehead softly, poking her cheek slightly to get her to wake up. “Seohyun, sweetie. We need to have breakfast!”

The best way to wake up Seohyun is to talk to her in soft tones, which is exactly what he’s doing. It works, as her face contorts slightly, her eyes trying their best to open.

“Baby, Mr. Kim is here,” Sehun speaks softly again, trying to see if the mention of her teacher gets her to wake up and: effectively, her eyes immediately snap open. “Wow. _That’s_ what worked?”

Seohyun’s little sleepy smile is enough for the competitivity to die out a bit on Sehun. She pats his cheek slightly, still blinking awake. “Hi, dad...”

She gets cut off by a loud yawn, but she quickly shakes her head as if to stay awake.

The sudden endearment is cut off by his own mind reminding him he has to leave her for a few days. The panic settles in slightly on his chest, so he hugs his daughter, placing his hand on her head and hoping leaving her isn’t as awful and hard as he thinks it will.

(It will be, without a doubt, as awful and hard as he thinks.)

Finally, after exchanging greetings with Seohyun, he turns her around for her to finally face her teacher. Minseok’s aura gets even livelier, if possible, coming closer to them so Seohyun can touch him.

“Good morning, Hyunnie!” Seohyun looks quite in shock, like she can’t really believe her teacher is here. Sehun nudges her a bit towards Minseok, and she finally reacts, arms opening wide for a hug. “I’ve missed you already! I’m so glad we’re gonna have breakfast together!”

Seohyun claps excitedly, fully awake now and returning to Sehun’s arms. “Mr. Kim! Are you here to teach us about the stars?! Is that what we’re doing?!”

“Absolutely!” Minseok’s grin stretches from ear to ear as he opens a seat for Sehun and Seohyun to sit down. “You’re such a smart kid!”

Seohyun giggles, as Sehun thanks him and sits down on the chair, his daughter sitting on his lap and trying to reach for her cereal. Sehun has quite mastered the art of eating his breakfast with one hand whenever he feels extra clingy and doesn’t want to let Seohyun sit by herself, quite like today, so breakfast isn’t that hard to eat.

“Thank you for making rice,” Sehun says sincerely, delighting in the taste. “It tastes so much better than the ones I make — this is unfair.”

Minseok shakes his head a little, waving it off like it’s not a big deal. “You always mention eating rice for breakfast, and, you know. You had instant rice there. Why not make you a plate?”

Sehun is getting really bad at pretending like Minseok remembering details about him isn’t getting to him. He’s been in too many emotional rides today.

“Thank you,” is all he can reply, wishing he knew more words besides that one. “You season this rice better than I do, too. I’m upset.”

“Are you pouting at me?” Minseok laughs incredulously. “You’re welcome, I guess!” then, his focus changes immediately. “Hyunnie, how’s the cereal?”

“Perfect!” Seohyun raises both thumbs up in delight. Sehun leans in to clean the milk that somehow had gotten on her cheeks. Her _cheeks_ , Jesus Christ. “I love them so much! Mr. Kim, you make the best cereal!”

“Ouch,” Sehun looks down at his daughter. “Is my cereal that bad?”

“No! Daddy, no!” Seohyun’s eyes widen immediately. “Your cereal is the best too!”

“I will literally make the best cereal you’ll ever taste,” Sehun continues after a mouthful of rice. “It’s okay, Seohyun. This is just cheating because you’re biased towards him.”

Minseok’s lopsided smile makes Sehun want to rip it off his face. With his lips or something. “Are you always this competitive?”

“I _am_ ,” Sehun huffs.

He laughs, bright and joyful, and then Seohyun’s joining him too. Sehun’s too prideful to admit his heart is fluttering a bit.

 

Breakfast comes and goes so quickly with Minseok’s presence. Before he knows it, he’s already packing up all the clothes he’s going to need for the trip and explaining Seohyun calmly that he’s going to be away for a few days.

Sehun is beyond terrified about leaving his daughter. Call him cheesy or whatever, but he always leaves his daughter for a few hours, not _days_. Sehun has never left Seohyun for days and he really, really doesn’t want to begin to do it.

“But it’s good!” Minseok intervenes when Seohyun is about to start crying. “We’re going to be together, and we’re gonna be calling Sehunnie together, okay?”

“Mr. Kim and Hyunnie?” she asks, and the choked voice she has makes Sehun want to call Junmyeon and tell him to find someone else. “So I won’t be alone?”

“No, baby, I wouldn’t leave you by yourself,” Sehun picks her up and places her on his lap, but Seohyun climbs up to hug him anyways. “You’re gonna be with Mr. Kim, and when your uncles come back they can be with you too!”

“Uncle Nini and Uncle Chanyeol?”

“Yes,” Sehun pulls her away a bit so she can look at him. “Are you going to be okay?”

There’s a little pout when she nods, and with every second that passes Sehun wants to stay at home even more.

“I’ll be okay,” she says. “Can we watch TV before you go?”

Sehun checks his watch. Junmyeon should be here in three more hours — plenty of time to have lunch and watch TV with Seohyun. “Sure!”

Seohyun’s blinding smile is enough to make his heart ache more.

 

Minseok, like the annoyingly good human trying to outdad Sehun, offers to make lunch for them. He excuses it on the fact that Sehun is already doing too much, that he needs to be relaxed, but Sehun knows he’s trying to win him in the _Favorite Battle_. He wasn’t being subtle.

“I’m not,” Minseok says rolling his eyes from the kitchen once Sehun accuses him. “Not everything is a competition.”

“Not with that attitude,” Sehun replies, and the look they share immediately cracks them up.

This feels way too comfortable for it to be the first time Minseok comes over. He doesn’t have time to think about it because he has to leave soon, so he pushes it onto his ‘thoughts for 2AM’ folder in his head.

Minseok brings them the food over to the sofa where they’re watching TV. Sehun is absolutely sure he’s never had such good ramen in his life, and now he really doesn’t want to leave. Why is everything so hard today?

Instead of focusing more on that, he decides to just settle in on the sofa, a bit closer to Minseok, and enjoy the ramen for once.

 

The doorbell rings.

Sehun’s stomach is full. He’s sure he’s up for a good ass nap on the sofa with Seohyun and Minseok if he wanted to sleep, and if the three of them ever fit in the same sofa. But one look at his watch tells him there’s only one person who could be ringing right now. He _knows_ he needs to get up from the sofa and get going.

Junmyeon looks as sorry as someone could look. He stares at Seohyun on Sehun’s arms and sighs deeply. “I’m sorry again.”

“Shhh already,” Sehun says, smiling a bit at him to relieve him.

Seohyun gives him a kiss on his cheek. “I’m gonna miss you, daddy.”

“Me too, baby,” and to not prolong it anymore, he passes her to Minseok. Minseok has a bit of a sad smile. “Please don’t spoil her too much.”

His smile turns into a real one then. “I can’t make any promises.” He pauses, and for the first time he seems to hesitate doing something. “I’ll miss you, too.”

Sehun has no fucking idea how to react, so he stutters out, “Uh, me too,” and waves at both of them again before hurrying to get into Junmyeon’s car.

Junmyeon follows him suit, putting on the seatbelt as Sehun hides his face behind his hands, ready to accept death in any way it comes.

“New relationship, huh?” Junmyeon says, tone of voice warm, like he’s reminiscing about something himself. “Bet that made you feel all the butterflies.”

 _“No!"_ he exclaims a bit too quickly. “No, not a relationship, he — he’s Seohyun’s kindergarten teacher.”

“Huh,” he replies. He gives Sehun a look like he quite doesn’t believe it but won’t press any further. “That’s great.”

Junmyeon turns up the music and Sehun uses it to bury his face on his hands a bit longer. Who says that out of the blue? Why did Sehun say it back? Can Sehun _please_ go back to his house again?

 

 

 

\--

Once he lands in Japan, the first thing he does is take out his phone and text Minseok and the groupchat with his friends that he’s arrived already. Chanyeol replies first, asking him to _please_ bring him things from there, Jongin has probably not even read the message yet, and Minseok texts back after a few minutes.

It’s a picture of Seohyun with her hair wet and a bowl of popcorn on her hands, sitting down on the sofa, smiling. Sehun’s heart squeezes. He reads Minseok’s caption:

_She was missing you so she decided to have a shower and a snack. She’s watching Disney movies now! :D_

He sighs in relief, now that he knows Seohyun is okay with him being away for a while.

 

_Thank you!!_

_Just don’t spoil her with too much snacks or else she’s gonna start buying more food from the supermarket haha_

The reply is almost immediate.

 

_She has the perfect age to be spoiled!!_

_How was the flight?_

 

_Pretty good!_

_I slept the whole way here @_@ I’m sleepy_

 

_Sleep more at the hotel!_

 

A new pic arrives. This time, when Sehun downloads it, it’s a pic of Minseok and Seohyun, both smiling widely at the camera. Seohyun’s cheeks are squished against Minseok’s, and the warmth that envelopes Sehun feels exactly like a hug.

 

_We wish you sweet dreams!!_

 

He surprises himself by immediately putting the pic as his home screen. Minseok and Seohyun absolutely look like they belong there — it both freaks out Sehun and makes him feel happy. It’s an odd emotion, but he’s not complaining.

 

-

As he keeps working as much as he can, he falls into the weirdest routine he’s ever been in.

Every now and then, his phone lights up with a message from Minseok — and it’s always one pic of Seohyun as a conversation starter. This time, it involves his favorite girl sitting cross-legged on the sofa, nose deep into a book.

_Working hard at reading!!_

_soon enough she’s gonna be able to read everything she wants :D_

Sehun is beyond grateful that Minseok takes his time to teach her how to read. Sehun’s been trying his best to do some home-schooling for now — preparing her for actual school and what not — but having an actual teacher is different than what his really tight schedule let him do.

_that’s amazing!!!!!_

_tell her i’m really proud of her!!_

A few minutes pass without an answer. Before he can continue with his work, he gets a new message. It’s a video.

A bit confused, he opens it, and he’s really delighted to see Seohyun on screen. Minseok’s voice behind her says, _“Your dad says he’s proud of you!”_

Seohyun’s eyes brighten up, even through a phone’s camera. _“Did he?! Is this for daddy?!”_ She excitedly points at the camera. _“Daddy! Hi! I love you!”_

He involuntarily waves at the phone as Seohyun waves at her own, too. The smile that he has in his face grows bigger each second that passes, as his daughter immediately reaches out for the phone. _“Daddy, I am so smart now! I can read twice as fast now! Come home quickly so I can read you stories!”_

She suddenly stops talking as she smiles up at Minseok. _“Mr. Kim! Be in the video too!”_

 _“No, no,"_  Minseok’s usual calm voice has a bit of a nervous edge on it for once. Interesting. _“He wants to see you!”_

Seohyun immediately pouts. A deadly pout. _“Your hair is cute, Mr. Kim! Daddy will want to see it!”_

Oh?

He hears Minseok’s very embarrassed laugh as he comes to sit down with Seohyun, and — oh my _God_ he has a little bun on top of his hair.

The amount of shades of red Sehun turns is quite frankly incredible, and he thanks every God listening that Junmyeon went for his break because he’s sure he wouldn’t be able to explain why the fuck he’s hiding his face now.

 _“Sorry about this,"_  Minseok says, still grinning embarrassed, _“She’s hard to resist.”_

Sehun knows that.

 _“Come home quickly!”_ Seohyun repeats. _“We miss you!”_

Minseok waves at the phone. Sehun stupidly waves back again. _“Keep up the good work, Sehunnie! We’ll be waiting for you!”_

The video ends on a shaky take as Minseok turns it off, and Sehun has to put his phone down. He lets out a shaky laugh as he rubs his eyes and restlessly keeps playing with his neck, and God knows _when_ he started spinning on his chair.

He has no dignity left to act like this about a crush.

Without leaving him space to feel shy and flustered, his phone starts ringing. It’s Minseok. He immediately picks up, and doesn’t mean to sound so out of breath when he says, “Hello?”

_“Hi — are you okay? Did you do something?”_

“No, no, I’ve just been working a lot without taking a break,” Sehun says, which isn’t entirely a lie.

 _“Aish,”_ Minseok replies, and he can’t really take any scolding seriously when Sehun knows he’s wearing the cutest hairstyle in the world. _“You need to take breaks! When was the last time you took one?”_

“Hours ago,” Sehun shrugs even though he can’t see him. “I am taking one now, stop nagging.”

 _“Fine, fine,"_ he can basically see Minseok shaking his head. _“I was calling in to check if it’s okay to hang out with Seohyun somewhere else? I don’t want to bring my friends to your place but we have a café and if it’s okay with you I could go there tomorrow and meet up with people? Chanyeol and Jongin can come too—”_

“Sure,” Sehun surprises himself saying. “I mean — thank you for calling and asking. That puts me at an incredible level of ease, you have _no_ idea. But secondly — of course you can. You don’t have house arrest, Minseok.”

Minseok laughs softly. Sehun loves that. _“Yeah, just wanting to make sure. I felt like I’d be lying to you or do something behind your back if I didn’t say it, so, here it is."_ He stops for a sec and then adds, _“I’ll be sending pics of everything. How are you, though?”_

“Really tired,” Sehun pinches the bridge of his nose. “I should be going to bed in an hour or so. I miss Seohyun…”

He gets cut off by a yawn. Perhaps he’s more tired than expected.

 _“Please go to sleep as soon as you can,”_ Minseok tries to go for a light-hearted tone but the worry can still be felt. _“We want you back all in one piece, ready for more TV marathons, alright?”_

“Alright,” Sehun stifles another yawn. “How are you, though? Has she given you any trouble or anything?”

 _“Not at all!”_ he says quickly. _“She’s the loveliest kid I have ever met in my life. She’s so fun! I love taking care of her — it’s going even better than expected. I miss having you around, too. I bet it’d be even more fun.”_

Sehun absolutely blames it on him being tired that a giggle slips out. He blames it even more on his brain once he says, “I miss you too _._ ”

There’s one second of silence before Sehun immediately slams the metaphorical brakes and puts the imaginary car on reverse, ready to take back every single sentence he just said.

“We should discuss payment once I get back,” Sehun tries to go for a light mood again.

 _“It’s really not a big deal,”_ Minseok replies, stubbornly. _“I’d do it for free.”_

“Still,” Sehun says, desperately needing to hang up now. “I gotta go, need to finish work so I can sleep. Goodnight!”

_“Goodnight, Sehunnie! I hope you have sweet dreams!”_

The line goes dead and Sehun’s head ends up on his hands. He wants nothing more but for earth to open up below him and swallow him whole, and then chew him back up as a normal and composed version of himself.

The door opens and Junmyeon lets himself in. He chuckles at the state Sehun is in, peeling his hands off his face. “You okay?”

“He…” Sehun sighs loudly. “He…”

“Your… not-boyfriend?”

Sehun nods miserably.

“Did something happen? Is Seohyun okay?” he asks, immediately serious.

Sehun shakes his head. “He’s just so cute.”

Sehun watches as Junmyeon visibly relaxes again and laughs. “Just… ask him out, Sehun.”

“It’s not _that_ easy,” Sehun shakes his head. He stretches a bit, ignoring the blush creeping to his cheeks. “Anyways, we have work to do.”

“You both seem to like each other,” Junmyeon continues, “so it really wouldn’t be an issue—”

“Could you go over the audio file in this and see why it breaks at 2:40? I can’t match it with the video,” Sehun talks quickly over him, attempting to shut him the fuck up. “We have work to do, Junmyeon. We can’t waste it like this.”

Junmyeon rolls his eyes fondly. “You’re impossible.”

Yeah, Sehun’s aware.

 

 

 

-

The next morning once he finally manages to wake up and get out of bed, he realizes his phone has blown up with messages, and so his first reaction is to assume something had happened with Seohyun.

It did, but not in the way Sehun was expecting.

The first message arrived at seven in the morning, which — again, _who_ the hell wakes up at seven in the morning? He’s pretty sure even Seohyun in her best days refuses to open her eyes unless it’s way past eight in the morning.

_Going to visit some friends at the park!! :D_

The pic is of Seohyun all comfortable in the backseat, seat belt already on, giving the camera two thumbs up. Sehun smiles brightly at seeing his daughter.

_We’re here!! She’s already making new uncles:D_

The new pic, sent an hour ago, is of Seohyun with two guys Sehun has never seen — obviously must be Minseok’s friends. Both of them seem extremely happy to be around Seohyun, which Sehun absolutely relates to: he can’t recall one moment where being near his daughter hasn’t lifted up every single one of his spirits.

_hello this is baekhyun ´w´_

_i’m the one on the right!!! i’m stealing minseok’s phone to tell you your daughter is pretty cool_

_she likes my dog!!_

Attached to it, there’s a pic of Seohyun hugging a corgi close to her, the biggest smile on her face making Sehun’s heart melt entirely. He makes that pic his lockscreen, and it’s a bit hilarious how quickly he’s been changing background pics nowadays.

_Hi!! this is Jongdae, the one on the left in the pic!!_

_Minseok talks a lot about you and Seohyun and it’s great to see Seohyun is as nice as he says!! ^^_

_Hope to see you soon Sehun!!_

Okay. It’s too early for Sehun to process the fact that Minseok actively talks about him and his daughter to his close friends, so instead he pushes the thoughts away and concludes that Baekhyun and Jongdae seem like really nice people, _especially_ because they liked his daughter and obviously liked dogs.

The sender changes to Minseok, again. Sehun smiles a little at how easily he recognizes when Minseok is the one typing.

_I am SO sorry_

_BUT yeah!! Those are my friends :D_

_We’re on our way to a café now!!_

The message comes attached with a selfie of Minseok in the car, showing Jongdae in the passenger seat and Baekhyun and Seohyun sharing the backseat.

_To keep you calm, Chanyeol and Jongin will be joining us too!! So you can relax your little head off!_

The latest message he gets is from twenty minutes ago, featuring Seohyun sitting on Chanyeol’s lap as he talks to… Baekhyun? Sehun squints at the picture. He hopes it’s Baekhyun. Jongin and… Jongdae, Sehun supposes, are on the counter talking to the baristas which Sehun swears he’s seen before.

_morning_

_thank you for the updates!!_

_i hope i get to meet baekhyun and jongdae soon too!! just two days more_

Minseok sends him a million heart emojis at once, which makes Sehun feel beyond blissed out by it.

The rest of the day he keeps getting all the little updates, while Sehun hurries to get done with the project. He’s so close to finishing it, and he cannot wait to go back home and hug his daughter and watch marathons with her.

Mid his second break, his phone starts ringing. It’s Minseok.

“Hi?”

 _“Hey,”_ Minseok’s grin is practically visible. _“Are you on your break?”_

“I am.”

 _“Good. I was calling to make sure you weren’t overworking,”_ Minseok continues, and Sehun smiles a little. _“Seohyun’s napping now. We came back to my place to pick up some things and she met Tan! I’m afraid she loves him a bit too much!”_

Sehun remembers Tan, of course. He remembers the little morning talks in the supermarket when Minseok was buying cat food while excitedly telling Sehun about how Tan really was the best cat in the world.

“Hey now, that’s not fair,” Sehun whines a little, “I didn’t even get to meet Tan yet!”

Minseok’s laugh is a delighted one. _“You’ll meet him too! Once you get back we can all visit Tan together.”_

Sehun’s lips curl upwards already, loving the image of him and Minseok playing with Tan and Seohyun. It’s comforting and it’s familiar somehow, so Sehun does the naturally obvious thing and pushes the thought away as quickly as possible. That’s _not_ something to think about while he’s away working.

Minseok carries on, ignoring Sehun’s lack of response for a second. _“Anyways, I just wanted to hear you for a little while. We miss you!”_

Butterflies immediately come to life in Sehun’s stomach. “I miss you guys too. Next time this happens I’m bringing you both.”

Why is Sehun telling his daughter’s teacher that he’s going to bring him over on his next trip? Just what is he gaining from this?

 _“You better,”_ Minseok says softly. It’s way too soft. _“I’m gonna leave you to rest now. Bye, love you!”_

Sehun’s phone immediately falls on his lap. What the _fuck?_

He must’ve misheard. Minseok must’ve said it out of habit, as a mistake, as a slip-up from his part. That. That did _not_ happen. That. That did not happen, not at all, nope.

He gets three texts on a row from Minseok.

_I’M SORRY_

_I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED PLEASE DONT LISTEN TO ME_

_SORRY_

Sehun hides his face, unable to stop the little incredulous noise that escapes him. “Oh my God, what the fuck?”

Junmyeon’s timing is incredible, really. He opens the door exactly as Sehun finishes saying that, two coffees on his hands, stopping as soon as he sees Sehun’s state. “Your boyfriend again?”

Sehun goes thirty shades redder when he uses that word, especially right now. “Not my boyfriend. But…”

Junmyeon arches an eyebrow at that.

“He just hung up saying…”

Sehun reddens.

“Saying…?”

“He said…” Sehun’s voice goes incredibly tiny. “Hesaidhelovesme.”

Junmyeon somehow got that, and the smile he offers Sehun is beyond sympathetic. “You kids got it bad.”

“I _know_ ,” Sehun whines, “what am I supposed to do?”

“Ask him out.”

“Junmyeon, you’re not helpful at all,” Sehun rubs his temple, like he doesn’t already know that he _should_ , in fact, ask him out. “I know I should.”

“And? What’s stopping you?”

Okay, that’s a good question, actually. Sehun stays quiet for a bit, looking at the floor, then at Junmyeon, then at the floor again. He’s staring at Sehun with a patient smile, like he knows him better than he knows himself.

“Uh,” Sehun says eloquently. “You know…”

“Hm?”

“You know,” Sehun says again, “just… that.”

“Are you scared?”

Sehun sighs a little. “Maybe.”

“Of what?” Junmyeon sits down next to him, rolling his chair closer to his. “It’s not like he’s going to be turned off by the idea of you having a kid.”

“No, it’s not about that,” he waves his hand in the air, dismissively. “It’s actually, surprisingly, the least of my concerns? He loves Seohyun, and I wouldn’t even consider dating if he didn’t. I’m just…”

“You just…”

“It’s a bit scary,” he admits. “I haven’t seen anyone since I had Seohyun. I don’t really know how to be fun, or how to be in relationships. I might bore him out. I can’t — I’m scared of ruining my routine with my job and Seohyun if I let someone in like that. It’s… all a bit messy.”

Junmyeon rubs his shoulder comfortingly. “I get you. I know it’s scary, but it’s the good type of scary. All of the things you’re saying are just _what ifs_ , _maybe_ s and _might_ s, not… real things that could happen, you know what I mean? You won’t really know unless you give it a shot.” He pauses, takes a look at Sehun, and smiles. “And by the looks of it, you really want to give it a shot.”

“Do I, though?” he smiles when Junmyeon shoves his shoulder. “Okay, okay, you’re right — I do.”

“You should talk to him when you get back,” Junmyeon says seriously. “Take the first step. It’s going to be fine.”

Sehun hums. “Thank you, Junmyeon.”

“Oh? No sarcasm now?” Junmyeon smiles brightly.

“You’re welcome, Sehunnie. We should keep working so you get to solve your lovebird things sooner.”

He tries really hard to not blush. He really does.

—

Sehun likes to think that as a single father raising your child by yourself, there are things that are no longer nerve-wracking for him. He likes to think he knows how to handle his stress, he knows how to keep his nervousness in check, and he likes to think he’s always got everything under control.

Obviously he’s wrong. His hands are sweating by the time he has to get out of the plane. There is a cocktail of emotions happening in his stomach, the excitement of seeing Seohyun again being the main one, but the underlying nervousness of meeting Minseok first over his friends is about to kill him.

They’ve been talking normally again, the I love you incident being disregarded as that: a simple accident — him being used to say it to his students too often and for always talking with his parents on the phone.  
Sehun’s a little disappointed by that, if he’s honest, but better than getting his hopes extremely high.

However, when he finally spots Seohyun and Minseok on the seats waiting for him, he immediately breaks into the brightest smile possible. Minseok nudges Seohyun, pointing at Sehun, and the feeling he gets when he sees her looking up and recognizing him is so, so lovely.

Seohyun immediately breaks into a run, yelling out for him and putting her little arms up high, and when she finally collides with Sehun he feels like he’s genuinely been away for an entire month and not a few days. He might be a bit over-dramatic, he might be a bit too clingy with his baby, but he really wouldn’t change anything else right now because the feeling of her in his arms again is more than enough.

“I missed you so much!” Seohyun is doing her best to squeeze him with her tiny arms, wiggling inside the embrace, legs accidentally kicking Sehun’s stomach as he tries to pick her up in better position. “Daddy, we saw so many things — dad, Mr. Kim has a cat! You love cats! And we went to the park and I’ve met — I met — dad you’re gonna love them—”

“Deep breaths, sweetie,” Sehun reminds her, laughing. Hearing Seohyun’s voice excitedly telling him things is way better than the phone could ever emulate. Next time he has to travel he’s definitely taking her. “How about we go say hi to Minseok?”

Seohyun cheers, and so with his free hand, Sehun takes his luggage and ignores the way his heart beats faster the closer he gets to Minseok.

Ever since he’s made the decision to actually have the _talk_ with him, he absolutely can’t get it out of his head and it’s driving him insane. Luckily, once he arrives to where Minseok is, he’s relieved to realize Minseok looks not nervous at all.

“Sehunnie!” he exclaims, reaching out to hug him. Sehun does his best to hug when he’s holding his daughter in one arm, so he ends up hugging both of them.

Sehun’s annoying, loud, and hopeful brain can’t help but wonder what this hug with the three of them must look like to outsiders. He’s not sure if he wants to continue that train of thought or not.

“I missed you! Have you eaten anything yet?”

“I — no, I haven’t. And—” he stumbles over his words for a second, “me too. Missed. You.”

Minseok’s big grin blinds him so much, he looks away for a second; embarrassed.

On their way home, in which Minseok updates him in even more detail and Seohyun adds her own twist to everything, Sehun doesn’t feel as nervous anymore. He feels like after being away from a few days, he kind of forgot Minseok was even better in person. Lovelier. Nicer. _Everything_ -er.

Once they finally reach home, Sehun removes his coat and tries to organize his thoughts. Keyword: tries.

“How much do I owe you?” slips out instead, and it probably shouldn’t sound as offensive as it did.

Minseok quirks an eyebrow at him. “Owe me?”

Not like Sehun can backtrack. “Uh, money…”

“Hmm,” Minseok looks deep in thought for a second. “I spent… what, four days?”

“Yeah.”

This is a bit awkward now.

“Then…” Minseok lights up. “Pay me… with dinner.”

“Yeah, su — what?”

“Dinner,” Minseok says happily. “Seohyun wouldn’t stop going on about how whenever you cook you’re the _best_ at it, so I really want you to make me dinner. _Or_ take me out for dinner.”

Sehun laughs incredulously. “Ah, seriously…”

Minseok only smiles at him in response. Sehun tries once again to collect his thoughts: this is literally the best opportunity he’ll have to talk about it because he knows so damn well he’s not going to have the guts later on.

“Minseok, about dinner…” Sehun clasps his hands together. “I’m… not the best at it.”

Minseok nods, urging him to keep talking.

“And I’m… I’m like, scared of stoves, I guess? Stoves are scary. Dinner is scary. But at the same time I want to try cooking, because, cooking is good. And dinner is nice. And exciting—”

“We’re not talking about _actual_ dinner anymore, are we?”

“Not really,” Sehun confesses shyly, laughing out of nervousness. “You’re understanding, right?”

“I think I am,” Minseok steps closer to him. He takes one of Sehun’s hands and Sehun feels slightly like dying. “You don’t have to be scared. It’s okay. I won’t hurry you to make dinner.”

“No, I know you won’t, but I _want_ to make dinner,” Sehun insists. “I… really like you, Minseok.”

Sehun means to say more. He means to say how insecure he is about things, and how scary they sometimes look, but the way Minseok’s eyes soften and he holds his hand a bit tighter makes him forget all about it. Instinctively, he leans down, cupping Minseok’s face with his free hand.

He feels like a firework about to go off, and effectively, once their lips meet he’s sure he’s combusted. Minseok’s hands let him go to put them around his waist, sighing contentedly, leaning more into the kiss. It’s been _so_ long since Sehun last did this, but it feels so right — like this was what he was meant to do months ago.

He breaks apart feeling like the whole world just shifted beneath his feet, and when he opens his eyes again he finds Minseok with his own still closed.

Chuckling, he asks, “You okay?”

“Give me a second,” Minseok smiles, eyes still closed. “I’ve wanted you to do that for so long. I need to remember it.”

With a renewed boost of confidence, Sehun leans in once again for another kiss, one that takes Minseok by surprise but happily kisses back again.

It’s a bit of a moment until they hear Seohyun coming down again, and Sehun puts his hands behind his back when she walks in, like his daughter could possibly know what he was doing.

“Daddy!” she shrieks again, running right into his arms. “I’m hungry! Dinner! Dinner!”

“Me too, Sehunnie!” Minseok puts both of his arms up high. “Dinner! Dinner!”

Sehun sighs, loudly. He needs to get good at cooking, and quickly.

 

 

 

**iii. another month later**

After a mouthful of cake, Jongin asks, “When are you telling Seohyunnie you guys are dating? She told me today her teacher is her babysitter and I couldn’t tell her Minseok is not her babysitter anymore.”

Sehun chokes slightly on his drink while Minseok laughs. “I personally think it’s funny if she still thinks I’m her babysitter.”

“You’re _not_ , though, you’re my boyfriend,” Sehun stresses like it’s absolutely important that Minseok remembers he’s his boyfriend. Minseok understands, though, and places his hand on top of Sehun as he speaks. “I just don’t know how to bring it up to her.”

Jongin points at Minseok with his fork. “Minseok is a teacher, shouldn’t he know?”

“It’s a bit of a delicate topic,” Minseok explains calmly. “I don’t exactly know how Seohyun feels about her dad dating, and even less, how she feels about her dad dating _me_.”

“Whose dad dating who?” asks Yixing, the barista, who turns out Sehun _did_ know back from when he was a dancer. Not that they were close, but no wonder he was familiar. “Anybody needs a refill here?”

Minseok raises his hand and Yixing smiles at him, grabbing his cup.

“Me dating Minseok,” Sehun says. “I’m trying to think of a way to tell my daughter.”

“Your daughter?”

“Seohyun.”

“Seohyunnie is your daughter?” Yixing’s eyes look like they’re about to bug out. “Oh, I just — I thought she was Chanyeol’s! He always brings her here, I assumed… I… you don’t _look_ like a dad. Anyways, I think you should just tell her. Kids are good and understanding and she likes Minseok. Nothing can go wrong, you know? I’ll go bring the coffee now.”

Sehun watches him go, mouth slightly open. “That was a lot to take in.”

Minseok giggles. “That’s just how Yixing is. You’re gonna get used to it, give it one more month.”

“He has a point though,” Jongin says. “Seohyun is a kid, and kids are really understanding. Especially Seohyun. You guys are stressing too much over it.”

Sehun squints. “Are we, though?”

“Yes,” Jongin smiles patiently, like he always does whenever Sehun is being impossible. “Your kid _loves_ you both. Everytime I hang out with her nowadays she won’t shut up about you two. It’s gonna be fine!”

Minseok rubs his thumb reassuringly on the palm of Sehun’s hand, going a bit quiet, lost in his own thoughts.

“But if it’s hard for you two then I get it too,” Jongin finishes. “Do it at your own pace.”

Sehun thinks they will.

Thinking about it hard, Sehun doesn’t remember any instance where Seohyun has mentioned she specifically doesn’t like her dad dating other people, or even the dating topic in general.

Minseok nudges him slightly when he gets in the car. “You’re too lost in your thoughts, Sehunnie.”

“Sorry,” he says. “I’m just thinking about Seohyun. She’s basically used to seeing us together, right? Nothing would change if we tell her.”

“I think so too,” Minseok replies. He turns on the engine and starts driving to Chanyeol’s place. “I think Seohyun won’t have any problems accepting it.”

“I’m sorry if I’m making it a bigger deal than it is,” Sehun sighs, rubbing his temple. He thought he got over the whole _first-child syndrome_ , where he would excessively worry about everything that happened to Seohyun. Nope, back to square one. “I know it must be uncomfortable for you—”

“Not at all,” Minseok gives him a quick look, then turns back to the road. He still puts his hand on Sehun’s thigh, reassuringly squeezing it. “I know what you must be feeling right now, and it’s what every other parent feels too. Don’t push yourself, Sehunnie. I love you and Seohyunnie, I’m willing to be patient.”

“What—”

“Likewise,” Minseok carries on, “if Seohyun doesn’t agree, I promise you I’ll keep my distance because she comes first—”

“Oh my God, stop,” Sehun says. “You love me?”

Minseok’s panicked smile makes Sehun’s stomach go wild. “Did I say that?”

“Yeah, and then started talking about you being fine with leaving,” Sehun stares at him, wide-eyed. “I’m getting mixed signals here.”

“I mean it though,” Minseok recovers his posture so quickly, Sehun hates him. “I wouldn’t get in the way—”

“Oh shut up, I love you too,” Sehun tells him, way more exasperated than shy. “Now stop talking like you’re gonna break up with me right after you said you love me!”

“Okay, okay,” Minseok laughs. “This is crazy. I really want to kiss you!”

“Too bad. Eyes on the road.”

Still, Sehun leans in and kisses his cheek loudly. Minseok squeaks. “Sehunnie! Do you want me to crash the car?”

In response, Sehun kisses him again, laughing.

“Sehunnie!”

 

 

-

 

They pick up Seohyun from Chanyeol’s place, with promises to come back soon and to absolutely hang out more often, which only makes Chanyeol be happier as he waves back at them.

“How was it, sweetie?” Sehun asks his daughter once she’s all set on the backseat.

“Uncle Chanyeol brought Toben! We went to the park together! Big car!”

Chanyeol has a big car, and of _course_ Seohyun drools all over it. It’s not like his car is ugly. It’s pretty good. Chanyeol is just a goddamn show-off. No, Sehun has _not_ been thinking about buying a better car ever since Seohyun said she liked his more.

Seohyun rambles _a lot_ on the way back, making Minseok be more excited to talk back — Sehun sits comfortably, listening to them talk about what kind of dogs they think are the best. (Sehun personally likes white, tiny dogs. No, Sehun has _not_ been thinking about adopting a white, tiny dog, just because Seohyun liked Toben more.)

He makes up his mind, then, mid-dog ramble: he really wants to tell Seohyun tonight that he and Minseok are dating. The family-comfortable atmosphere between them is an unique feeling, he _wants_ Seohyun to know how special this is to him, to Minseok, and to make her feel even more loved.

Steeling himself, he squeezes Minseok’s hand, and waits for them to get home.

 

At home, they all sit down on the carpeted floor in the lounge, Seohyun’s favorite TV show on the background as Sehun and Minseok play with her and her toys.

The big squishy seal (Mr. Puuppah. Don’t ask. Seohyun got him when she was two, and decided that was his name) ends up on Sehun’s hands while she’s assigning what plushies belong to who.

Minseok ends up with the little brown bear, that Jongin absolutely tried to appropriate and now was named after him. Sehun didn’t approve, but Jongin kept pouting at Seohyun saying, ‘please, for your favorite uncle!’ so his name was now Mr. Nini. Even though Sehun refused to address him as such.

“It’s his name,” Minseok says laughing once he hears the whole story. “Seohyun, tell him it’s Mr. Nini!”

“Dad, it’s Mr. Nini!” She pouts, “You said we should always be polite!”

“Jongin doesn’t _deserve_ it,” he replies, shrugging and obviously joking.

Minseok rolls his eyes, amused, and settles back into using _the_ Mr. Nini voice. Mr. Puuppah sat comfortably on Sehun’s lap, Sehun suddenly feeling a bit too embarrassed to do his voice. It’s the first time he’s playing with Minseok and the plushie family, okay? He can’t just throw away all his last pieces of coolness remaining.

Suddenly, mid-talking, Seohyun pipes up: “I’m gonna get more plushies!”

She runs off immediately, leaving Sehun to wonder how the hell she always has strength and energy on her legs. It just doesn’t make any sense. Kids, he figures.

Minseok scoots closer to him. Sehun turns around to look at him, a knowing smile spreading as he knows what he wants to do. He brings him closer by his collar and lets himself melt into the kiss, slow and soft.

“Really wanted to do that,” Minseok almost whispers, kissing him shortly again.

“You always say that.”

“I just don’t get tired of you,” he chuckles, and Sehun’s heart races on his chest.

He takes both of his hands on his own, looking over where Seohyun had gone to. “I really want to tell her. Like, right now.”

“Are you nervous, baby?”

“ _Don’t_ call me that or I’m gonna cry,” Sehun laughs in disbelief. “I really am. I have an idea, though?”

“Hmmm?”

He holds up Mr. Puuppah, all bright and cheerful. “We can tell her with a little help from her friends.”

Minseok catches on immediately, just as Seohyun gets back from her plushie hunting adventure. Her tiny arms are absolutely filled with way too many plushies, so Sehun helps her set them all in order.

Plan begins.

Sehun sighs deeply, trying to hype himself into getting in character.

“ _Seohyunnie_ ,” Sehun says, in his best Mr. Puuppah voice, which means he’s swallowing all the laughter threatening to escape. “ _Seohyunnieeeeeee~_ ”

“Mr. Puuppah!” Seohyun exclaims, excited, absolutely unaware of everything.

“ _Seoohyuuunnieee~_ ” he continues, “ _I have news for youuuuuu!_ ”

“What is it, Mr. Puuppah?”

Well.

This was it.

Sehun mentally prays to every single god listening to him.

“ _Do you know what a boyfriend is?_ ”

Minseok stares at Sehun like he grew a second head. Sehun does his freaking best to shrug without looking suspicious, hiding behind the big fluffy plushie.

“Yeah, it’s what Mr. Kim is to daddy,” Seohyun replies easily.

Sehun chokes a little. Minseok looks like he’s about to go into a laughing fit.

“ _W-what?_ ” Mr. Puuppah’s voice breaks a little. Sehun then clears his throat, and tries his best to remain in character. It’s not really working. “ _How did you know?_ "

“I saw daddy and Mr. Kim holding hands,” she explains easily, excitedly. “Uncle Chanyeol also said it one day.”

Sehun mutters a, “Of course he did,” under his breath. He’s super relieved, though.

Peeking out from behind the plushie, Sehun raises his head. “Seohyunnie…”

“Daddy?”

“That doesn’t bother you, right? You’re okay with daddy and Mr. Kim being together?”

“Of course!” Seohyun excitedly claps. “I love Mr. Kim! And I love you! I love you!”

“Ah, I love you too,” Minseok says, finally laughing and opening his arms wide. Seohyun doesn’t hesitate to run into them. “You can stop calling me Mr. Kim, you know?”

Seohyun looks horrified. “But Mr. Kim…”

Minseok laughs, and Sehun is kind of stunned on his place. Oh my God. It feels like a whole weight has lifted off his shoulders, and he turns around to see Seohyun and Minseok still hugging, looking at him expectantly.

“Seohyun,” Sehun continues, still a bit anxious. “You know I love you the most anyways, right? And that nothing will change? And that you’re the most important—”

“Dad,” Seohyun smiles, pointing at him, “you’re talking too much!”

Sehun laughs, embarrassed. Minseok puts his hand up, and Sehun takes it, assuming it’s to help him stand up.

Minseok drags Sehun closer to them, forcing him to join in the group hug.

He starts thinking about every single thing waiting for them — Seohyun joining the school soon, getting to fall in love with each other more, arranging schedules — and Sehun doesn’t feel terrified at all.

He can’t wait for more better days.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
